May 1997 holidays on Karpathos, as you may remember, my favorite island for holidays!

On the whole island there is only one small music-shop. The owner knows me and so he told me, there's something new from Dalaras, to mousiko kouti, a box with 9cd's, 1 cd-rom, and a booklet. Shall I order it for you from Athens? I didn't know.

The box came, I had a look on it and on the price!! and I said, no thank you, most of these songs I have already and what do I do with this cd-rom without a computer!!

So I left when holidays were over.

I came there again in October 1997 for the next holidays.

First evening, everything was already closed, I passed this music-shop, looked into the window: to mousiko kouti, decorated on a table, was still waiting for me. Is true, this guy only ordered one example and no one bought it. So I took it home in October.

And about the price, for me it was more expensive. As I wanted to play this cd-rom, I had to buy a computer!!

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I think everybody finds this difficult to limite to ten for favourite songs. 'Aferimeni' as I always am and also being busy with something (Geeske, how do you translate : Ik heb geen zitvlees ?), it can change a lot. But there are songs that will always be in my Top Ten:

1. An iparchi logos

2. Theos an inai

3. Mia vradia sto Leverkόsen

4. K'an se thelo, k'an me theleis

5. Agrigento

6. Hasta Siempre

7. Den thelo pia na xanartheis

Ach, every song reminds me of something that happened in my life. Most of them (lucky me) good times, sometimes sad moments. But who else than Dalaras can with one song, without knowing you personal, express what you feel? I don't know any one else. He has it all.

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Micki,I believe George can't express what we feel with his songs,but because of the great music and the meaningful lyrics his songs have,you project your feelings on the song withought even thinking about it! If these songs had been sung by any ather singer,the inpact wouldn't have been the same noway!And that ofcourse is because of his voice!

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Weel Geeske,my opinion is that because,as you said,he is so expresive,he performs his songs in such a way (meaningful way) that makes the lyrics that are great,touch you.But the songs,and more specificaly the lyrics,are the ones that can express in every detail what you feel.That's my personal opinion.

Ofcourse for people that are not Greek and cannot understand completely the lyrics and the everyday Greek lifestyle that the lyrics inflect,what is more touching is his voice and his performance.That is touching for Greeks too,but for me,the lyrics overcome even his great performance (ofcourse as I said before,this is only my personal opinion).

However I must add,that there are some songs that gain a completely new meaning and sence,because of George's increadible performance!

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Well, the lyricks indeed are very important, but we shouldn't forget that music itself, alone, is way of expression. There are certain melodies, without lyricks that can make your mind travel. They can appease our soul. And many of Dalarases songs (others more known, others less) have great melodies. For example "Μη την πιστεύεις την αγάπη" or "Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα" and of course "Μη μου θυμώνεις μάτια μου" and also "Αγάπη διχασμένη" and many many more. The lyricks are fantastic but a song is also the music. And feelings are generated by both lyricks and music. A song is the combination of these two elements.

And of course it's Dalarases voice and his magnificent performances that make us recognise our feelings in his songs and link them to certain events of our lives. When we say that he expresses our feelings, we don't mean that he actually feels the way we do, or that he has experianced what we are going through (though it's not impossible) but that he has the ability to feel what the song really talks about and what feelings it arises, to understand why there is a La here instead of a Re, and to see exactly how each verse should be sang and each note should be played in order to make these feelings clear to us and make us feel the way he felt by going deep in this particular song.

In short terms, we mean that he has the ability to become one with the song and therefore express it in a remarkable way. His performances are magnificent and touching because they are authentic, they come from inside, as all great performances come. At least that's the way I see it... Being a singer it's much more complicated than just saying the lyricks and requires much more than a good voice.